Recap: Boy Scouts of America on “Jeopardy!”

The venerable quiz show “Jeopardy!” paid tribute to the 100th Anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America last week with a special category about Scouting.

The “Jeopardy!” Clue Crew took a special field trip to California’s Camp Winton for footage to complement the category. And even though the contestants saved the category for last (none of them were Scouts, apparently), the group got each question right.

Were you watching? If not, here’s a chance to test your knowledge with the answers and questions from the show. You’ll find the five answers below. Write down the questions on a piece of paper, and then check your work by following the jump below.

$200: In 1940 this composer gave the Boy and Girl Scouts all future royalties from the song “God Bless America.”

$400: To be a First Class Scout, you have to able to find directions. One way is to place a stick in the ground and wait for the afternoon shadow, which will point this way.

$600: A popular Scouting activity is the throwing of this type of hatchet or axe native to North America.

$800: A traditional skill in Scouting is knowing how to build a fire; one good method is named for this Native American shelter.

$1,000: The first Boy Scout to go on to be the president was this man who, in a youthful letter to his father Joe, asked for a bigger allowance to buy canteens and other Scout supplies.

“Scouts throw tomahawks?”
Yes. I’ve been at several events, including the National Jamboree, that had tomahawk throwing events.
However, it must be conducted safely, which means in a proper range area, little different then how we handle archery, shooting, etc.

My 1967 Boy Scout Handbook teaches the “shadowless shadow-stick method”, which doesn’t depend on time of day. Angle the stick so there is no shadow, then wait until you get a shadow six inches or longer. That shadow will point east. It adds that the method is quite exact in the middle of the day and good enough at other times.
We have a tomahawk throwing range at our Mountain Man Rendezvous camporee.

We throw tomahawks at Lewis & Clark Scout Reservation’s Buckskin Adventure range, on the banks of the Missouri River. We shoot blackpower muzzleloaders there, too, under the strict and careful eye of the rangemaster.

Tomahawk throwing was introduced to Scouting by one of the founders: Dan “Uncle Dan” Beard. He introduced it at the very first BSA Scout Camp at the YMCA camp Silver Bay, at Lake George, New York in August 1910. The boys were so keen on it, that Beard spent the entire day demonstrating and according to Ernest Seton, he proceeded to ruin ever large tree in camp.

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Bryan on Scouting is the official blog of Scouting magazine, a Boy Scouts of America publication. Scouting magazine is published five times a year and is received by 1 million registered adult volunteers.